Illinois Republicans regroup (11/8/12)

-Hi, I'm Danny Ecker with your Chicago Business Today Midday Report. Tuesday's loss in the election was a wake-up call for the IllinoisRepublican Party which took a bigger hit than expected losing five senate seats to Democrats which will now control 40 out of 59 votes and losing four incumbents in the Illinois House where Democrats gained seven seats. It's a stark contrast from the past in a state controlled by Republican governors for decades and presents fundamental questions about the party's future. For more, I'm joined via Skype by Crain's Washington Bureau Chief Paul Merrion. Paul, you spoke with some Key Illinois Republicans following the election. Were these losses much worse than what they were prepared for? -Quite a bit, I think. You know, they-- they knew it would be a tough election because of redistrict thing and-- and President Obama being at the top of the ballot, but even just recently, they were expecting to hold or win several of these congressional seats or at least it would be very close, but, you know, a lot of these were very close at all. -Is there a lot of finger-pointing going on here? I mean, what's the sense on Pat Brady's leadership? What needs to change moving forward? What are they saying? -Well, Pat Brady, the chairman of the party, is-- is, you know, ultimately responsible and I think some people have-- have suggested that maybe the changes should start at the top. I don't think there's a whole big ground flow for-- for that. I think it's-- it's more reviewing the whole apparatus of the state party, the-- the-- the caucuses, the caucus leaders, House Minority Leader Tom Cross, and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno and then just the-- the whole way that the parties are supporting the campaigns and-- and recruited candidates and that sort of thing, but I don't-- At this point, it's not clear what-- what's gonna happen with the leadership. -Yeah. And how about the-- the way that some of the Republican campaigns are run, are there specific demographics moving forward that they-- they simply don't reach that they are to? What's the-- the case there? -Well, that's-- that's one of the fundamental problems. You know, the-- the map is--is the map for the next 10 years and the Republicans across the country are not reaching out in getting the Latino vote like-- like Democrats are and-- and the-- the women's vote and-- So it's-- it's a problem for the party at the national level as well as the local level. -It could be a very different looking IllinoisRepublican Party in four years, huh? -Perhaps. -All right, Paul. Thanks a lot.